Tragic Overture, Op. 81

Composer: BRAHMS, Johannes
  • Brahms composed his Tragische Ouverture and the Academic Festival Overture in the summer of 1880. The two overtures are often considered contrasting counterparts to each other.1
  • Scholars are not sure if there was a specific occasion which prompted this overture. Brahms had been sketching it since approximately pre-1872. He may have chosen to complete the work in 1880 after the death that year of his friend, the painter Anselm Feuerbach.2
  • This work premiered in Vienna on December 26, 1880,3 in a performance by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Hans Richter.4

Sources

  1. George S. Bozarth and Walter Frisch, “Brahms, Johannes,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed December 6, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051879.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Ibid.
  4. “Tragic Overture, Op.81 (Brahms, Johannes),” IMSLP, accessed December 6, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Tragic_Overture%2C_Op.81_(Brahms%2C_Johannes).

Cut IDs

19160 40172 43554